Winter Mess: South Wakes to Snow, Freezing Rain

One hundred million Americans are waking up Thursday to snow, ice, and freezing rain. This latest round of winter weather has claimed the lives of at least a dozen people across the South.

It's also been crippling travel and has left almost half a million homes without power.

The day began with more than 4,000 flights cancelled, leaving about 5 million passengers stranded nationwide.

"I was anticipating going home Thursday, had plans for Friday, but that's now going to be cancelled," stranded traveler Tisha Mason said.

The powerful system could dump more than a foot of snow on Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. It's already shut down the federal government Thursday and closed schools up and down the East Coast.

"I'm played out with the snow. It's making my job twice as hard," postal worker Harold Grimminger said.

Three people were killed when an ambulance crashed on an icy road in west Texas and caught fire.

A Dallas firefighter was also killed after being knocked from an interstate ramp and falling 50 feet.

In Raleigh, N.C., people abandoned their cars on frozen roads, and many ran for cover after one trapped car caught fire.